Dark Whisper P no Higeki Exaxxion

Charles McCarter: SILENT MÖBIUS. It's finally going to end, and we may all live to see it. How long has it been? Ten years or something like that...

Eric "Scanner" Luce: If I had my druthers I would want to see the manga by Yamashita Ikuto, DARK WHISPER, finished. It is mysterious and confusing with beautiful art, fantastic mecha designs, and an intriguing story. The reader is left almost totally hanging at the end of two volumes! People may have seen some of Yamashita's work in the mecha designs for the TV series EVANGELION, the design of the Flyer in KUROGANE COMMUNICATION, or some of the mecha designs in BLUE SUBMARINE NO. 6. But we want to know more about this mysterious story occurring in New Zealand, of all places (just what happened to America anyways?)

Eri Izawa: P NO HIGEKI and SENMU NO INU, both by Takahashi Rumiko (author of URUSEI YATSURA, MAISON IKKOKU, RANMA 1/2). Takahashi Rumiko's fine storytelling and sense of humor combine wonderfully in these recent collections of short stories, snapshot looks into the human experience. The stories are meant for people with a mature outlook; the kanji also have no furigana.

Keith Rhee: EXAXXION - Sonoda Kenichi's trademark guns and girls theme. It's a guilty pleasure, but it's well-drawn, and the story's very engaging.

Rika Takahashi: If you gave up on JIRAISHIN because you didn't like ICE BLADE in Mixxzine, you don't know what you're missing so give the import a try (especially from volume 9 onwards, when the female sidekick Eriko comes in)
And if you have an import manga fan, phonebook subscriptions are a great idea. This year I'll expand my recommendations and say that any of the three major shounen weeklies (JUMP, SUNDAY, MAGAZINE) or a solid seinen weekly like YOUNG MAGAZINE (home of 3x3 EYES) are great if you can afford it. If not, a solid (though not necessarily of high circulation) monthly (ACE or GANGAN for shounen, AFTERNOON for seinen, and HANA TO YUME, LALA, and WINGS for shoujo) should do the trick.

Dark Whisper Copyright © Yamashita Ikuto. P no Higeki Copyright © Takahashi Rumiko. Exaxxion Copyright © Sonoda Kenichi